Archive for the ‘The Media’ Category
All Over The World The Media Are Self-Serving, Out of Control Renegades
‘Freedom of the press’ has nothing to do with the crass and irresponsible behaviour of two scumbag Australian DJs. Nor is it anything to with the Daily Mail’s intrusive and tasteless 20 page feature on the 12 week pregnancy of the Duchess of Cambridge. Nor has it anything to do with the Independent’s publication of false science and sensationalism about cannabis and exploitation of those with mental illness.
These are the self-serving calculations of an out of control media that has politicians in its pocket or terrified to confront its immoral and disgraceful practices.
It seems they can drive a woman to such international humilation that she takes her own life, a princess at high speed into the walls of a Paris tunnel or government policies in any direction they want based on their proprietor’s personal agenda.
They can break the law with impunity, bribing and blackmailing police to leave them alone.
Then, when their actions are challenged and they are called to account, they launch their well-oiled machine of deception, untruth and propaganda and try to seize the high moral ground as if they are protectors of freedom. In fact, mostly, they are exactly the opposite.
We need an independent media that is required to report truthfully, to moral standards that are enforced by law.
Nothing else will do. Dacre, Murdoch and their cronies cannot be trusted at all, anywhere. First we need freedom from the press enforced, strictly, by an independent regulator free from the state by force of law.
An Open Letter To My MP, Richard Drax, On The Leveson Report
Dear Richard,
You suggested in your speech in the House this evening that implementing the Leveson report would mean legislating on ethical standards for the press.
This is nonsense and I find it difficult to believe you could advance such an idea in good faith. What Leveson recommends is legislating to create an independent regulator which would set ethical standards based on consultation and agreement. This is exactly what we need.
I could not disagree with you more when you say “non-statutory, self-regulation” is the only option. I believe precisely the reverse is the case. The press has been given seven ‘last chances’ in 70 years to put its house in order and without fail has returned to abusive, corrupt and unacceptable conduct.
You will recall, I hope, that I too am a journalist and real ‘freedom of the press’ is something I value highly – but with freedom comes responsibility. It is preposterous, as you seem to suggest, that there should be no rules and all journalists must be trusted without question!
I regret that in your speech I found you pompous, apparently completely detached from the reality of most people’s day to day lives and, most of all, out of touch. You appear to be a caricature of an MP from an age that is long, long past..
The press barons, owners and editors, are flexing their muscles, saturating our country with propaganda which blatantly misleads about the urgent necessity for independent regulation. Their furious disinformation, trying to frighten and intimidate with nonsensical allegations about state control of the press is the dishonesty and manipulation of Fleet Street exemplified.
Independent regulation, backed by statute, is essential. As proposed it will enshrine a newspaper industry as independent from the state. It is a necessary and progressive move in support of freedom and liberty and against the corruption and vested interests of the media megalomaniacs.
I reject entirely your position on this vital issue.
Peter Reynolds
Hacked Off’s Leveson Petition Passes 100,000 Signatures
Congratulations on this achievement. We need to go much further though.
This corrupt government has already reneged on its e-petition pledge and ignored many that have grown well past the 100,000 mark.
The people of Britain are stitched up every day by the oligarchy of Westminster, the press and the banks and we need to fight back. This is an excellent cause around which to unite.
The press barons are a self-serving, dishonest collection of owners and editors who manipulate their power and their contacts for personal political and financial gain. They and their sleazy hacks are entirely distinct from the noble profession of journalism.
At all costs we must resist any attempt to revert to ‘self-regulation’. The lunatics have been in charge of the asylum for too long.
SIGN THE PETITION HERE!
The Only ‘Freedom Of the Press’ That Fleet Street Wants Is The Freedom To Distort, Mislead And Exploit.
Bonkers
The Butcher
Please sign the Hacked Off petition here calling for the Leveson report to be implemented in full.
Mr ‘Slippery’ Cameron vowed that unless the report was “bonkers” he would see it implemented in full. Questioned by Andrew Marr in September as to whether that remained his position he said “Absolutely”. Now he’s been got at by the press barons who are flexing their muscles, saturating our country with their propaganda which blatantly misleads about the urgent necessity for independent regulation.
The Bitch
On seven occasions in 70 years the press has been given a ‘last chance’ to continue with self regulation. Every single time they have proved to be unfit to do so. Are we going to allow these self-serving bullies off the hook yet again?
The Bully
The furious misinformation and spin flooding our streets, trying to frighten and intimidate with nonsensical allegations about state control of the press is the dishonesty and manipulation of Fleet Street exemplified.
Independent regulation, backed by statute, is essential. As proposed it will enshrine a newspaper industry as independent from the state. It is a necessary and progressive move in support of freedom and liberty and against the corruption and vested interests of the media megalomaniacs.
Phoney Fleet Street Dissemblers Yanking On Mr Slippery’s Strings
The lying, cheating, self-serving, abusive charlatans that call themselves ‘Fleet Street’ editors are in raging apoplexy about the suggestion that they might be held to account.
Spineless, Mr ‘Slippery’ Cameron has flip flopped as usual. Just a little bit of pressure applied in the right place and he’d pimp his grandmother if it seemed expedient.
There’s Nothing “Bonkers” About The Leveson Report Mr Cameron But As For You…
Now comes the news that the ‘Butcher’, the repugnant, mendacious Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail is to chair a meeting of editors to consider their response to the report. Anything that Dacre touches turns to the dark side. I don’t know why he earned his nickname but it well expresses what he does to the truth.
Butcher Of The Truth
I fervently hope that the public just won’t stand for this. Fleet Street’s desperate last stand is to claim that an independent regulator underpinned by statute is a slippery slope or crossing the Rubicon and will inevitably lead to state interference in the press.
Absolute hogwash! This is the press using their unrivalled expertise to deceive, mislead and distort the truth. Why the hell should these amoral, exploitative, habitually dishonest barons be above the law?
In fact, an independent regulator backed by statute is the best possible way to guarantee a ‘freedom of the press’ that is in the interests of us all. The only freedom that Dacre and his cronies want is to be able to continue their despicable, self-serving manipulation of facts, news and people’s lives for their own ends. At all costs, the nightmare scenario of more ‘self-regulation’ must be resisted.
Hacked Off, the campaign for a free and accountable press, is running a petition calling for the Leveson report to be fully implemented.
We Must Have Independent And Legally Binding Regulation Of the Press
The Editors’ Code, a transparent complaints process and investigative powers all backed with the force of law is what we need. The idea that this would be state control of the press is a fallacy but one that the newspaper barons, with their huge vested interests, massive resources and influence are pressing as hard as they can.
‘Don’t panic Mr Mainwaring but the sacred freedom of the press!’
They’re trying to stitch us up with scare stories. Pretending that some great principle is being infringed. Now, where have I heard that before? Oh yes, the press.
Who’s to say that we don’t already have state control of the press? In extremis, the government would step in and impose any rules it wished. Then, idiots like Fraser Nelson of The Spectator would be two a penny and they could rot in jail.
Real life is not in extremis. It is in state of constant compromise. We need to establish rules by which the press and all media must abide. Compassion, respect and accuracy should be our principles but the idea that newspaper editors should regulate themselves is codswallop.
Broadcasters are required to provide balance, the press is not. That is a privilege that must be balanced by a responsibility
“not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information”
These are the exact words of the existing Editors’ Code. All we need to do is give them the force of law. If we can make the press take responsibility it will be to the great benefit of society.
My Lord Leveson, I submit.
Witch Hunts. Self-Flagellation. Paedophilia. I Admire The BBC.
An extraordinary and bizarre event took place tonight between 10.30 pm and 10.35 pm.
Newsnight was running its lead story about Panorama’s story about Newsnight not doing a story about Jimmy Saville.
Five minutes later Panorama started its story about Newsnight not doing a story about Jimmy Saville.
Meanwhile on BBC News the lead story was Panorama, Newsnight, Panorama on Newsnight, Newsnight on Panorama on Newsnight.
You have to give the BBC due credit and respect.
Clearly bad things took place on its premises and under its auspices but the absurd level of guilt by association or even suspicion is pernicious and evil. MPs are grandstanding over it, including John Whittingdale, chair of the Culture select committee, whose politicking and pre-judgement of his own inquiry is disgraceful. Obviously the print media and other broadcasters are exploiting it for their own ends but I admire the BBC’s handling of the scandal. Any other media organisation would have covered it up.
The BBC is its own fiercest critic and I congratulate it for that.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing and a dreadfully cruel thing for those who had the best intentions.
BBC Launches 347th Inquiry Into Jimmy Saville. How’s About That Then?
Just in the past week, the BBC has commissioned 26 new documentaries about Jimmy Saville, Channel 5 has put out a general appeal for independent production companies prepared to investigate the scandal. Channel 4 is dedicating a month of Jon Snow’s time to this vital work and Rupert has instructed Sky to prepare a special nightly news bulletin, combined with Premier League stars in dedicated condemnation of the disc jockey from hell.
The Home Affairs committee, the Culture, Media and Sport committee, the Health Services committee, the Justice committee and the Cabinet Office are launching their own inquiries next week and the Speaker is also considering a five year long investigation headed up by the Right Honourable Dame Sally Bercow, newly appointed head of the Scumbag Saville charity, patron HM The Queen.
Esther Rantzen is facing 25 years in jail for failing to report her suspicions. Mother Theresa is accused of complicity because she once said Saville had done good work and Peter Hitchens, Mail on Sunday columnist, has been sent to the Tower for life for his preposterous suggestion that we may be focusing too much attention on Jimmy Saville and his legacy.
BREAKING NEWS!!!
A life size dummy of Jimmy Saville is to be hung, drawn and quartered at Marble Arch, historical site of the Tyburn executions – David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband will be in attendance . In Paris, the guillotine is to be rolled out for another Saville-faced crash test dummy to face its doom. In the US, simultaneous executions by electric chair, gas chamber, firing squad and lethal injection are to be performed on Saville dummies.
The High Court has ordered that everyone who ever watched an episode of Jim’ll Fix It should receive 25 years counselling at the BBC’s expense and Lord Justice Leveson is to head up a new inquiry into whether the media has expressed sufficient condemnation of Mr Saville’s actions.
Meanwhile, criminal prosecutions are to be brought against every member of the Leeds social services department and their heirs and successors for the next fifteen generations.
In a speech tonight, Harriet Harman, Labour party guru, said “We are not doing enough to condemn the allegations against this man… Sorry, I mean this man and his allegations which are now pronounced as fact by all right thinking people with no right of reply. Dead? Is he? Already? What a shame we were about to call for chemical castration for all BBC staff”
Hysterical PC Nonsense About A Young Couple In Love
I really am sick to death of all the pious wailing and weeping about Megan Stammers running off with her teacher, Jeremy Forrest.
Now, of course, a teacher should not be engaging in a relationship with one of his pupils. Megan is also beneath the age of consent but the ludicrous, preposterous idea that he is responsible for “child abduction” shows just how easily the police can be swayed by media pressure.
These are two young people in love who have eloped, foolishly but understandably. The BBC, in particular, has pushed this story to a quite ridiculous and irresponsible extent. Mr Forrest has been demonised as if he is a violent rapist and paedophile. He and Megan are the victims in this story, abused shamelessly by a prurient, sanctimonious and hypocritical media.
Megan is 15. Very shortly she will have passed the age of consent. In France, where the couple were discovered, she is already past the age of consent, so what is the crime?
I feel very concerned for Mr Forrest. He has been stupid and irresponsible and probably committed a technical breach of the law but he has been villified beyond reason. I am far more concerned for the horrific ordeal his parents have been put through than the parents of Megan whose incontinent displays of emotion hide, I suspect, responsibility for Megan’s willingness to elope.
It’s the media though who deserve real condemnation. It is they who sexualise girls at a younger and younger age and yet when this young woman follows their lead, they turn on her and her partner.
It’s not that long ago that girls younger than Megan would already be married and that is still the case in many countries. I’m not suggesting that is a good thing but the hysterical overreaction to this young couple’s romantic adventure disgusts me.
When Will They Ever Learn?
Steve Jobs
The man, the genius, the inspiration that the whole world is feting and eulogising; it turns out he’s just another one of those dirty, disgusting, scumbag drug users.
The estate of Albert Hoffman, inventor of LSD, with exquisite timing, has released correspondence with Steve Jobs, a keen advocate for and user of psychedelic drugs.
David Cameron and Theresa May would have him sent to jail like Casey Hardison for 20 years.
Barack Obama would have him renditioned to wherever he wanted him and subjected to special interrogation techniques.
The Daily Mail and these days, to its eternal shame, even The Independent would have him ostracised, demonised, castigated and excluded.
I know who I think is smart and I know who I know is stupid.
A great man and a great example. The contrast between his intelligence and the ruling oligarchy is startling.
Peter Reynolds 